1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to methods and apparatus for supporting Home Agent discovery using advertisements.
2. Description of the Related Art
A node that supports Mobile IP is typically referred to as a Mobile Node. Packets addressed to the Mobile Node are generally transmitted to the Mobile Node's home address. When the Mobile Node roams outside its home network, the Mobile Node generally registers with its Home Agent in order to notify the Home Agent of its location (i.e., care-of address). Upon successfully registering the Mobile Node, the Home Agent typically establishes a binding between the Mobile Node and its care-of address. Thereafter, the Home Agent may access the binding to ascertain the Mobile Node's care-of address. Thus, when the Home Agent receives packets addressed the Mobile Node's home address, the Home Agent may forward packets addressed to the Mobile Node to the Mobile Node's care-of address.
In order to register with its Home Agent, the Mobile Node generally composes a registration request that identifies the address of the Home Agent. Thus, each Mobile Node is typically statically configured with a Home Agent address. More particularly, static configuration generally involves manual configuration of a Home Agent address on each of the Mobile Nodes. However, provisioning the address of a Home Agent in every Mobile Node is a cumbersome process.